In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah 6:1-5

Woe is me.

Standing in the presence of God, Isaiah’s response was the acknowledgment of his own depravity, his own sin.

When I read this, I can’t help but think about David’s cry in Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Acknowledging the sin hidden away in our own fallen hearts can only happen when we stand exposed to a Holy God. The proper response of Isaiah, to announce woe over himself, and David’s request to search and expose sin is what leads us to repentance.

This isn’t an attempt to self-deprecate, rather, a form of a proper view of self and of God.

While fully exposed before the throne of the Lord, Isaiah mourned his sin and the sin of his community. The response of ‘woe’ was a direct correlation to the holiness of God, the complete otherness of which he stood before, fully knowing that he did not measure up.

Isaiah didn’t measure up to the holiness of God because none of us can. Post-Eden, each human that takes a breath on this side of heaven inherited the sinful nature of our original parents (Genesis 3). There was nothing Isaiah could do and there is absolutely nothing that you or I can do.

But because of the perfect grace, love, and justice of our Holy God, He did not leave us to waste away in this sinful state.

Jesus, God himself, came down to a broken world by wrapping Himself in the flesh that He created. If that wasn’t enough, He didn’t come down as a Captain America prototype, rather He entered the world as an infant. And as He grew and experienced life just like we do, He remained without sin. The perfect One, fully God and fully man, lived a life that cared for the sick and helped the poor. Living a life that, instead of being celebrated, led Him to be betrayed, beaten, hung on a cross, and killed. He left His throne, where seraphim flew around singing out His holiness, to take on my sin. Not only did He die for my sin, but He did it while I was still His enemy. After He experienced the complete wrath of God for my sin, Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave so that I could have eternal life.

My Jesus, completely holy and perfect, did this for me because He loved me. Can you imagine that type of love? Not a distant or cold love, but a sacrificial love.

I was completely broken, sinful, wicked, and an enemy of God. But God, being rich in mercy, saved me. Undeserved and so often ungrateful, that’s what Jesus did for me.

Yet I have the tendency to project my own sinful characteristics on God. But God is not like me or you. He is Holy, set apart, and completely other. There is no one like Him because He came before anyone ever existed. There is nothing like Him because He existed before anything else was ever created.

In the presence of God, Isaiah was given the understanding that his only response to the holiness of God was the acknowledgment of his sin and the complete humility in knowing he had nothing to offer.

In seeing God, Isaiah saw his sin.

We are no different, or we shouldn’t be at least. The more we see God for who He is, our only response should be woe is me! To know God is to spend time with God, through Scripture and prayer, to know God is to spend time with His children in a gospel community.

As we strive to know God more, He reveals truth to us, and we can see our complete need for Him. When we see God rightly, we see ourselves rightly.

Woe is me, O God, search my heart and reveal to me my wicked ways, and make me more like you.

by Emily LaGrone